McCoy excited to see Constitution Hill strut his stuff

PA Sport Staff
March 11, 2023 2:19 pm

Unbeaten hurdler could take racing to the front pages.

Sir Tony McCoy sees Constitution Hill as the horse that can generate all the right headlines ahead of his bid for Champion Hurdle glory at the Cheltenham on Tuesday.

The former jump jockey, a 20-time champion, mentioned Nicky Henderson’s gelding alongside some of the great names who have graced the sport under both codes in the past.

Though Constitution Hill can not quite yet be hailed as a champion, McCoy feels he has the potential to elevate the sport to the front pages if his performance in the Champion Hurdle is as sparkling as expected.

He said: “We all see horses and sportspeople that have moments of brilliance and Frankel’s 2000 Guineas (in 2011) was one of the wow moments.

“As jump horses you have to achieve a lot to elevate yourself from the back page to the front. There have only been few jumpers that have been capable of doing that – other than Desert Orchid, Red Rum, Kauto Star and Best Mate there have not been many.

Constitution Hill winning the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at last season's Cheltenham Festival — Constitution Hill winning the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at last season’s Cheltenham Festival (Mike Egerton/PA)

“I look back at the hurdlers in recent times, Hurricane Fly is the best of the most recent ones, while Istabraq is the best one I’ve seen in my time. What Constitution Hill has done the last two times has had the wow factor about it in the ease in which he has won.

“He has beaten a good mare in Epatante a couple of times, but after the Champion Hurdle we will get a different reading as if he is able to do the same to those rivals then he might be able to get on the front page.”

The six-year-old is unbeaten under rules and has won five races, including four Grade Ones, by a combined 77 lengths having never looked remotely beatable thus far.

“There is no doubt he is a talented horse and if you picked one of the jump horses you would love to own or train he would be the pretender you would pick that could be the superstar,” McCoy added

“Hopefully, Constitution Hill can live up to his reputation and deliver that success under Nico de Boinville that we all want to see happen.”